When did rock 'jump the shark'?

For those that need a primer, here explains Jump the Shark.

I was listening to the radio the other day and heard the song White Unicorn by Wolfmother. I happen to like this song. My wife doesn't care for it. Everytime she hears anything by Wolfmother, she starts singing a random Led Zeppelin song. Wolfmother comes in the radio in the car, my wife starts, "Hey hey mama said the way you move..." Great.

I see the comparison. High tenor, heavy arena-rock power guitars. I totally get it. But it got me thinking. This is the kind of thing that would get played on a rock station 30 years ago. Now, it's an alternative song. Why, I don't know. If there really were rock stations these days this is what they would play I would think.

Which got me thinking. When did rock jump the shark? Specifically, what was the last rock album? When Nevermind came out in 1991, rock radio stations starting playing alternative bands. The Smashing Pumpkins and the Red Hot Chili Peppers were the new mainstays of rock stations at the time. This shortly after Motley Crue and Bon Jovi and bands like that were the big deal.

Let me state this another way. Think about what classic rock stations play now. The latest stuff they will play is Orange Crush by REM and maybe something from Achtung Baby by U2. The XM radio station Top Tracks doesn't play much newer than that. Maybe some late Mellencamp (is that really rock? Eeeewww.). But think about it. Do class rock stations (classic ones in particular) play anything later than 1990? When does 90s era rock become 'classic'? It's treated as another form of music altogether.

So I began to come up with a list of albums that marked the end of rock as we knew it. The short list includes Shake Your Money Maker by The Black Crowes (some rock stations play Hard to Handle) and Use Your Illusion I and II by Guns 'n' Roses. However, even though it came out before Use Your Illusion (by a month or so), I would argue the last rock album was The Black Album by Metallica. After that, Nevermind came out, Ten came out, and the rock era was over.

Think about it. Everything after Metallica's Black Album was either crap (Jackyl anyone?) or alternative (or was labeled as alternative even if it wasn't). Hair bands were dead. And we all had to watch the video for Evenflow (Pearl Jam) on MTV way too many times.

Help me out here. I know I've lost my mind, but what do you think?